Who do radio listeners like online?

While station managers and syndicators often dictate which radio hosts can be heard in your car, the Internet allows listeners the freedom to pick any program, any host at almost any time of the day.

So who are Americans choosing as the top radio talkers on the Internet?

A list of the “Top 100 Talk Shows of 2012” just released by Talk Stream Live – which ranks the nation’s leading streaming talk shows – placed Rush Limbaugh at the top, with Michael Savage No. 2 and Glenn Beck No. 3.

Laura Ingraham came in fourth, followed by Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Tammy Bruce, Dennis Miller, Bill Bennett and George Noory rounding out the top 10.

Most surprising were the strong performances of Savage and Ingraham, both of whom were at least temporarily off the air following contractual disputes with their syndicators and moved to new providers of their shows to stations around the country.

Other rankings, especially where the online audience differs from the on-air “Heavy Hundred” ranking produced by Talkers magazine, show a stark difference between what audiences choose online and what they’re given on the radio.

For example, Talkers magazine ranks Ed Schultz No. 4, with over 3 million in his radio audience, but Talk Stream Live ranks the progressive talker’s online audience at No. 61.

WND senior reporter Aaron Klein, however, soared up the charts. His weekly “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio came in at No. 30 on the Talk Stream Live ranking, far ahead of even many daily shows, including noteworthy conservative Mike Huckabee, progressive Randi Rhodes and Schultz. The ranking is doubly surprising, considering Klein’s show isn’t even nationally syndicated.

Klein points out that his program has hit No. 1 in its AM time slot in the coveted New York City market, but credits his success – both on air and online – to his unique content.

“I think my ratings, both online and terrestrially, demonstrate the craving for independence in talk radio as opposed to partisan talking points,” Klein told WND. “The show is unique in that it combines investigative journalism with the concept of talk radio, essentially creating a new genre that no one else is doing. The audience also knows they’ll get the information and investigations only on my program, since, with few exceptions, there is no real news media remaining in America today.:

Talk Stream Live notes its rankings, based on a sample of 2.75 million listener sessions, “tracks talk radio show metrics gathered on the Internet and collected through our cloud based server via TalkStreamLive.com’s website, gadgets, iPhone app and ‘click2listen’ links on social networks. We only rank the talk show hosts that are listed at TalkStreamLive.com. The TSL Top 100 report includes the big personalities talk show fans would expect as well as some new media rising stars. The conclusions are our own and not guaranteed to be accurate.”